Chapter 274 Discussing With Laurene (And The Bigwigs) I

[The goddess 'Artemisia' gazes at you silently.]

'??!!'

Laurene's expression betrayed her surprise, prompting questions from all those who saw.

[Something wrong?]

"No, it's nothing."

[Are you sure?]

"Yeah, I'm fine."

[Okay. But still, it really has only been a year since we last saw each other, right?]

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

In response to her question, Evan placed a hand on his chin while narrowing his eyes at Laurene for a few moments.

[it's just that you look a lot different.

Do people really grow this much in just one year?

You look a lot different. I don't know how to describe it. It's like you got…. prettier? Well, that's for sure but that's not the word I'm looking for.]

The boy looked lost in thought for a few seconds before a look of realization flashed through his eyes. Slamming his fist on his other palm, he spoke.

[Aha!

You look more mature. You're giving off this vibe of someone who has gone through a whole lot of shit in life and has grown up as a person because of it.

Which is weird considering you're just thirteen.]

"Are you being serious now, Evan?

Besides, if we are to talk about changes, then I think you should look at yourself in the mirror and compare it to a picture of you at this time last year."

Laurene's words made Evan chuckle a bit, with the young hero going on to give an explanation for his appearance changes.

[A lot of stuff happened last December.

My body and soul went through a bit of metamorphosis, synchronization and a few other things.

You remember Xakon, right? The demon who found out I was a hero and tried to murder me. After killing him, I levelled up a bit too much at once and broke into the master level while being unconscious after the battle.

It was during that time that all that happened. Even after I woke up, there were still some times that my body would shut itself down and I'd pass out randomly because my body was 'updating' itself. It was quite a hassle.

Anyway, the appearance change is just a side effect of it, and besides, I still have my original features as the base, so it's all right.]

"I have so many questions about what you just said and I don't even know where to start asking from…"

While Laurene was replying to Evan, she was using her other finger to write text on the desk with magic, with the others in the room reading that text and understanding her intentions.

[Right now, Evan believes he's speaking to ONLY Laurene, so there's a chance that if he realizes that there are others, he may not able to say some restricted things.

So please try not to do anything that'd make him realise that there you all are here.]

[Huh? You can star-!

Wait up! Why are we discussing this? This is definitely not the reason I'm spending dozens of C-rank magic stones to contact you.]

Evan who was unaware of Laurene's plan, remembered the original reason he had even bothered to contact Laurene, snapping back to the main point of the conversation right after.

[Laurene, things are bad.

If what I just heard from this dude after I tortu-! Asked him for information, is correct, then things are gonna be a lot worse than I had planned for.]

As he spoke, the boy held up his sword and stabbed it downwards at something that they could not see, with the unfortunate person that was stabbed, letting out a guttural scream in response.

[Shut up, will ya? I'm trying to talk to someone.]

Evan stabbed the person on the floor once more, and then stomped on their face with his foot before turning back to the shocked Laurene.

[Where was I again?

Oh, yeah. So, I said I had a nice 'talk' with this guy and he was kind enough to give me some important information about the incoming Dullahan crisis.

Although I was kinda planning for this, I thought it actually had a 10% probability of actually happening. But now, that just went to 99%.]

The boy took a deep breath to calm himself, ignoring Laurene's still flabbergasted expression, before continuing.

[Let me just summarize all this in three words;

Cheverton Duchy, is fucked.

Wait…that's four.]

While Evan was counting the number of words he actually spoke, the expressions on the faces of the other people he didn't know were with Laurene, were darkening bit by bit, with Duke Cheverton looking the most displeased.

"Can you explain everything from the top?

Properly."

[A proper explanation? I can do that.]

However, before Evan could start his proper explanation, someone who was nearby spoke to him, distracting him from his call with Laurene for a while.

['Huh? Evan? What are you doing?

Nothing much, just trying to tell Laurene the dangerous information we just got from this guy so she can tell her dad and Duke Cheverton that shit has literally 'hit the fan'.

'Her dad? That's the Emperor, right? Didn't you already have a means to speak to him directly?'

And what made you think that?

'You said you spoke to him when we were at Kasteblum.'

Oh, that. I talked to him using the projector in Gavin's office. The look on his face when I popped up in Gavin's magic projection.

'Dude, that's the Chief Grand Magus, you know?]

Hearing his conversation with the third party, Laurene threw a glance at her father before turning to Evan and asking.

"Since when are you on a first-name basis with the Chief Grand Magus of Kasteblum?"

[Hmm? Since the first time we spoke.

Anyway, that's not important right now.]

Fully turning his attention back to Laurene, he continued.

[What's important is the Dullahan attack.

Things have been moved up a bit.

Remember the dates I gave you in that letter, saying that the undead would start attacking in two months with the Dullahans and the Dullahan King showing up in July?

Scratch that

Things have been pushed forward.]

Evan had already given Laurene a basic idea of how the Dullahan attack went down in the game through the letter he sent via Suzanne, so the young girl wasn't clueless about his words.

"If it isn't going to happen in July, then when is it going to happen?"

[Next Month.]

"What?!"